Monday, May 07, 2007

Diego Corrales 1977-2007

Diego "Chico" Corrales died in a motorcycle accident earlier this evening.If you follow boxing, you know that this guy was one hell of a great fighter. I really loved watching this guy box, and he seemed like a genuinely "nice" guy (legal trouble aside). He had some of the greatest bouts in recent history - The 2005 Castillo -vs- Corrales match will go down as one of the greatest all-time fights in the sport.His career was definitely on the skids (he was effectively finished as a lightweight), but he really showed potential in the welterweight class in his most recent fight with Clottey.I'm gonna miss him.

4 comments:

I didn't know much about this guy's career but about 6months ago I showed Alex the 10th round of the Castillo fight. The boy came home all into wrestling and while I told him he could have fun watching wrestling - it wasn't real.

He asked why, and asked me what was real.

I said "Boxing."

Bill Garver is more the boxing guy, but somewhere in my fuzzy brain I know that if your kid comes home from his friend's house giggling about wrestling, my job as dad is to teach him what little I know about boxing.

I showed Alex the Haggler Hearns classic, Rocky Marciano, Roy Jones Jr., the first LaMotta/Sugar Ray Robinson fight...caught a little hell from my beloved wife when she caught us watching old boxing clips on YouTube

I fired back, "If this is the worst thing the kid sees on the internet he'll be ok."

So Alex asked for more boxing more boxing...I came across the 10th round of Corrales/Castillo and saw a comment from someone claiming to be Bloggerman (Keith Olberman's old e-handle, probably bullshit but it read "Best fight I've seen in person, thanks for posting it")

I thought well the kid wants more boxing, maybe this fake e-KO knows what he's talking about.

When the ref stopped the fight near the end of the round, Alex and I both sat there in stunned silence. Alex said "That guy looked dead but he got up off the ground and beat the other guy."

When I saw the pic here I instantly remembered the clip and wished I saw the fight when it actually happened.

I didn't know anything about his career and never really followed Corrales after that...I only knew his name and that pic

I thought about the heart that kid showed and what he did in that 10th round.

Such a shame.

In a world that can be heartless and gutless, we need all the fighters we can find.

actually, I watched the clip again...Corrales was knocked down twice in the 10th before putting the other guy away...he even lost a point for spitting out his mouthpiece - Great clip from his corner too

After the point deduction you just hear the corner guy say "You gotta put him fucking down now"

Yea, boxing is not the worst thing for a kid. Wrestling is much worse. I watch the dopey kids next door pretending to be wrestlers, doing moves on a trampoline (that happens to be placed on a concrete slab!) that should not be attempted by anyone! At least boxing shows a kid what REALLY happens when two guys pound the hell out of each other - they get hurt!